October 4, 1996

U.S. To Keep 7,500 Troops in Bosnia to March '97, Perry Says

By STEVEN ERLANGER

ASHINGTON -- Up to 7,500 U.S. troops will remain in Bosnia until
mid-March, Defense Secretary William Perry told a Senate panel
Thursday. He insisted to Republican senators that this did not
represent the beginning of an extended U.S. military presence in
Bosnia.

The new figure is about half the current number of U.S.
peacekeepers in Bosnia, whose one-year mission is to end Dec. 20.
Both Perry and Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that a new contingent of 5,000
troops would leave for Bosnia soon for a six-month tour with the
primary purpose of assisting in the withdrawal.

Perry acknowledged that America's NATO allies largely favored a
so-called follow-on force to be installed after the current mission
ends.

But he repeated before the Senate Armed Services Committee on
Thursday that neither he nor President Clinton had made any
decision on a follow-on force.

Perry rejected a charge by skeptical Republicans that the
administration was simply delaying until after the presidential
election a decision to deploy more American troops to Bosnia for an
extended period.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona and the committee chairman, Sen.
Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, chastised Perry and Shalikashvili
for announcing the new deployment without first informing the
committee or seeking authorization.

"I've never seen anything like it before: a press report that
we're going to keep 5,000 men and women overseas without any
consultation with Congress," McCain said. "The credibility gap
between you and Congress is as wide as the Grand Canyon."

Thurmond complained: "Notification and policy by press release
does not constitute consultation with the Congress."

But Perry and Shalikashvili argued that they were remaining
within the 20,000-troop ceiling authorized by the Senate, that they
had moved in soldiers to replace others in Bosnia before, and that
the new 5,000-troop deployment was only a "cover force" to insure
a safe and thorough withdrawal during a period of expected bad
weather.

As the United States had put in a larger "enabling force" to
set up in Bosnia, Shalikashvili argued, the military was putting in
a cover force to pack up and get out.

Therefore authorization was not necessary, Perry said. He did
say that committee leaders should have been informed by letter.

A senior administration official said that Clinton and Perry had
no ulterior motive and that the 5,000 troops were the minimum the
Pentagon required to leave Bosnia in good order. "You don't know
how the Pentagon works," the official said. "They think in big
units. It's like atomic particles: what is the smallest unit in
which troops come? I'm amazed the number isn't higher."

A decision to postpone municipal elections in Bosnia from
September to late November, Perry said, meant a slower withdrawal
of U.S. troops than had been planned. But he said the schedule
would not slip further, even if municipal elections are again
delayed.

NATO defense ministers have ordered Gen. George A. Joulwan,
commander of NATO forces in Europe, to study options for a
follow-on force in Bosnia, which range from zero to a heavily armed
force like the current one, in which U.S. troops predominate. They
make up some 15,000 of a total of 52,000, down from 19,000 and
60,000 respectively.

Perry said he found three options most plausible: complete
withdrawal, without a follow-on force; a force able to deter the
renewal of serious fighting, but relying on air power, without the
use of ground troops, and a force able to deter new fighting and
provide freedom of movement for Bosnians, which would require
ground troops.

While he said the second of these options "is attractive, if it
could be done," most U.S. officials think the last option is most
likely. NATO diplomats agree.